IRS.gov, Comcast.com and CenturyLink.com are 2014's Most Frustrating Websites, According to AnswerDash's Website Usability Survey

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2014) - userconf 2014 -- AnswerDash, the world's leading provider of contextual FAQ technology for websites and web applications, today announced the results of its inaugural website survey, revealing Comcast.com, IRS.gov and CenturyLink.com as this year's most frustrating websites for consumers. Conversely, Amazon.com, Facebook.com and Apple.com yielded the highest scores in terms of website usability among survey respondents. The survey was fielded nationally in order to reveal consumer website preferences, website abandonment trends and the online customer service tools users find most helpful.

In addition to highlighting user experience trends across different websites, the survey also revealed generational differences in website abandonment. Among 18-24-year-olds, 75 percent will abandon a website within two minutes if they cannot find what they need. 57 percent of consumers who are 55-years or older abandon a website in two minutes or less, with 28 percent indicating that they would spend only 4 minutes trying to accomplish their task on a website before leaving.

While millennials are more likely to abandon a website quickly, there was a low tolerance for confusing websites across all demographics, with an average abandonment time of 90 seconds.

High-level survey findings include:

More than half of consumers (59 percent) selected Comcast.com as this year's most frustrating website.

While consumers indicated that The IRS's and CenturyLink's websites were also difficult to use, they both performed better than Comcast, at 37 percent and 35 percent disapproval, respectively.

Amazon, Facebook, and Apple have the most intuitive websites, according to consumers, with over 70 percent of consumers approving of Amazon's ease-of-use, compared to 49 percent approval of Facebook and 43 percent approval of Apple.com.

Consumers indicated that Microsoft's website is more difficult to use than Apple's, with 20 percent of consumers stating that Microsoft's website is confusing, compared with only 6 percent regarding Apple's website.

Across social media sites, Facebook was ranked as the easiest to use, with Meetup.com as the least intuitive.

Across government websites, the IRS's website was the most frustrating, with Healthcare.gov surprisingly ranked as the easiest to use, edging out the Department of Motor Vehicles' sites.

Among e-commerce sites, including Zappos, Amazon, and more, consumers found Target's website to be the most difficult to use, with 16 percent of consumers selecting Target as the most frustrating website.

Research Analysis

With only 6 percent of consumers staying on a website for 5 minutes or longer if they cannot accomplish a task or find what they need, website abandonment for Comcast, CenturyLink and Target may pose a threat to their revenue in 2015.

According to Forrester, online shopping revenue in the U.S. is expected to reach $278.9 billion in 2015, with an annual compound growth rate of 10 percent. With e-commerce slated for such substantial growth, companies looking to reduce website abandonment and improve the customer experience of their websites may wish to implement additional website customer service tools.

The survey also illuminated a number of key demographic differences with customer service tools, with consumers over 44-years-old nearly 20 percent more likely to call a company when they cannot find what they need versus younger age groups. Among 18-34-year-olds, only 9 percent of respondents indicated that the phone was a helpful customer service tool.

Across all demographics, the most helpful tools for website customer service according to respondents are Live Chat and Contextual FAQs, with over half of respondents (51 percent) preferring one or both of these customer service tools to improve online customer experience and reduce abandonment. This may indicate a greater need for these tools.

"As e-commerce grows, and particularly in the light of the upcoming holiday season, delivering an excellent online user experience is imperative to helping propel consumers along the path to purchase," said AnswerDash CEO Jake Wobbrock. "We conducted this survey to provide companies with actionable insights around website usability, and the results are telling. Companies face a huge opportunity to provide an intuitive online experience by including website support tools, such as Contextual FAQs, that reduce abandonment through improved user experience."

About AnswerDash

AnswerDash, the world's leading provider of contextual FAQs for websites and web apps, offers businesses tools to improve the customer experience of websites or web applications. AnswerDash enables companies to deliver instant contextual Q&A to their customers right where they need them, without switching pages, whether on desktop or mobile platforms. By providing quick contextual answers, AnswerDash increases sales, reduces support costs, and provides valuable insights to online businesses. For more information, please visit: www.answerdash.com.